News Briefing: from Britain and Ireland

The mother of murdered Catholic schoolboy Jimmy Mizen has become the first pro-chancellor of St Mary’s University, Twickenham.

Margaret Mizen MBE (pictured with Bishop Richard Moth, chair of the board of governors) takes up the honorary role at the university alongside the chancellor, Cardinal Vincent Nichols.  

Since the death of her son in 2008, Mrs Mizen has worked tirelessly with young people across the country sharing Jimmy’s story in schools, prisons, Youth Offending Institutes and community groups. Through her charity, For Jimmy, she has developed a flagship school programme that supports pupils aged 8-16 that have been identified as academically and socially at risk. On receiving the accolade, Mrs Mizen said: “It’s a wonderful honour to be asked to be pro-chancellor of a great university that promotes the same values and ethos as For Jimmy. I will do my very best to fulfil this role with God’s guidance.”

Prayers for Nice
Catholic leaders denounced the terror attack in Nice, France, last week in which 84 people were killed. Cardinal Vincent Nichols joined with Muslim faith leaders in London to condemn the attack. “Together, as religious leaders we pray that peace and not violence, compassion and not hate will triumph as the people of Nice try to rebuild their community,” they said in a joint statement. The Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Leo Cushley, who was on his way back from Lourdes when the news of the attack broke, tweeted: “As we leave Lourdes, our prayers are with those killed in Nice and for their families #PrayForNice.” The Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin, said: “Our thoughts and prayers are also with the first responders and with members of the French community living here in Ireland. I invite everyone to undertake an act of kindness or compassion this weekend, perhaps to counterbalance with love this awful crime.” (See Tom Heneghan, page 6.)

Theresa May’s cabinet appointments pose a threat to the pro-life movement, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) has claimed. Describing Home Secretary Amber Rudd as a “hard-core supporter of the abortion and sexual rights lobbies”, Paul Tully, SPUC’s parliamentary director, added that Education Secretary Justine Greening’s voting record on abortion, embryology and marriage was a cause for concern. Commending Priti Patel who last year voted against sex-selective abortion, Mr Tully said SPUC would support her in her role as the new International Development secretary. SPUC said that Mrs May’s voting record showed sensitivity to pro-life concerns, adding that the Prime Minister should distance the Department of Health from campaigns to relax the law around abortion. “There needs to be a government policy which aims at ensuring that every pregnancy can have a happy ending,” he added.

Labour MP Jon Cruddas told the National Justice and Peace Network at its conference in Swanwick, Derbyshire, last weekend that the Catholic Church is uniquely placed to develop a model of politics grounded in the common good.
Mr Cruddas called for a new politics that would look to a more holistic vision of a person living in society, as part of community, rather than as a commodity. He also told delegates that Labour faces the biggest crisis in its history and apologised for the way the party has behaved over recent weeks. Cruddas suggested the party could fragment if the present damaging conflict between much of the Parliamentary party and members continued. UKIP could then transform itself into a workers’ party sweeping up the working classes, he suggested. “Neither [Labour leader Jeremy] Corbyn nor the right of Labour are appealing to the working classes,” said Mr Cruddas.
Elsewhere at the conference Jenny Sinclair, founder-director of the Together for the Common Good project, called for Catholics to “climb out of our silos and see what else is going on – from parish to boardroom.”

Jobseekers warning
Completely digitising services for jobseekers risks excluding some of the neediest people, the chief executive of the Cardinal Hume Centre told a Work and Pensions Select Committee inquiry last week. Speaking at a hearing on the future of Jobcentre Plus, Cathy Corcoran said that the system’s reliance on computers had increased exponentially compared to people’s grasp of how to use them. She urged the Government to work more closely with local charities and organisations and to provide more support for vulnerable people without digital skills.

The Bishop of East Anglia, Alan Hopes, presented Pope Francis with letters from children in his diocese at a recent audience. The letters – from children in years five and six at All Saints Inter-Church Academy in March, Cambridgeshire – were written for the refugee families who were recently housed at the Vatican, as part of the school’s Year of Mercy project. “The children were overjoyed when I told them about their work being handed to Pope Francis,” said Charlotte Harrison, a year five and six teacher at All Saints.

“One of the children – Ilona – said that she couldn’t believe how their work could reach the hands of Pope Francis through just two other people and that it made her feel like Pope Francis was a friend we now knew.”
At the audience, which took place during a diocesan pilgrimage to Rome, Bishop Hopes presented the Pope with a copy of Catholic East Anglia, a history book marking the 40th anniversary of the diocese.

Schoolchildren debated the relevance of Religious Education at an inaugural youth debate in the House of Commons last week. The debate, which was attended by local MPs, covered the role of religious literacy in combating extremism, the secularisation of schools, and the responsibility of society, through schools, to expose young people to the widest range of opinions and issues. Many children spoke to their MPs after the debate, which was staged by the Religious Education Council for England and Wales (REC) and the National Association of Teachers of RE (NATRE) in the week that an independent RE commission to make recommendations for change within schools was launched.

The headmistress of a Catholic primary school in Salford has been suspended over allegations about SATs papers. Diane Hanley, head of the Cathedral School of St Peter and St John RC Primary, will remain off-site until the Standards and Testing Agency concludes investigating an allegation of maladministration of a number of test papers.